For someone to be recognised as practising British Traditional Wicca by another practitioner the most basic requirement is that they were initiated into the tradition by someone who was themselves a BTW initiate of sufficient degree - and hence having an initiatory heritage traceable back to someone indisputably of the Tradition, generally being traced as far as Gardner, Sanders, etc.
However, it is also a requirement that the training they received, and the tradition they continue to work, remain consistent with BTW practice. The exact requirements of this are not well defined, and apparently contain at least a few oath-bound matters not discussed with non-initiates.
British Traditional Wicca has been highly influential upon other Wiccan traditions, with several non-BTW traditions modeling themselves after the BTW. Even the importance of initiatory lineage is found in some - whether because they are traditions descended from BTW, but having departed from it, or because they have a similar, but unlinked, place for initiatory lineage.
Notably, Isaac Bonewits defines BTW not as Neopagan (which he categorises other Wiccan paths as) but as Mesopagan.[5]
The term is most commonly used in the United States, where the British origins of these traditions is more noticeable. The term is becoming more common in Britain and Ireland, though there is some resistance to its adoption due to the word "Wicca" being more commonly identified amongst Pagans there as referring solely to the New Forest traditions (or at least, of that narrower definition as being one, if not the only, definition of the word) and the fact that "British" is unremarkable in Britain (where being "British" is after all the norm) and has negative connotations in Ireland for historical reasons.
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